'Toy Story 2' Slays Arnold at Box Office
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The cartoon characters of ``Toy Story 2'' outgunned Arnold
Schwarzenegger's new film as the Disney sequel smashed box office records for the U.S.
Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.``Toy Story 2,'' a computer-generated animated feature, has grossed $80.8 million since its North American rollout on
Wednesday, said the film's co-producer, Walt Disney Pictures.
Schwarzenegger's satanic thriller ``End of Days'' opened at No. 3, behind last weekend's champ, the James Bond movie
``The World is Not Enough.''
``Toy Story 2'' is a sequel to the 1995 film, and Tom Hanks and Tim Allen once again lent their voices to the main characters,
Woody and Buzz Lightyear, respectively. In the new film, space ranger Buzz and pals team up to save cowboy Woody from
being shipped to a Japanese museum.
The tally for the film's Friday-to-Sunday portion was $57.7 million. The film's 10-day total stands at $81.1 million because it
played exclusively for one week at a single Los Angeles theater.
``It surpassed all our expectations and yet all it did was live up to its promise,'' said Chuck Viane, president of Disney's
Buena Vista Pictures distribution unit.
Disney, which produced the picture in association with Pixar Animation Studios Inc., said it beat the year-old Thanksgiving
record and also set a company-wide mark.
The previous Thanksgiving champ was Disney/Pixar's ``A Bug's Life,'' whose five-day haul of $45.7 million included $33.3
million for the Friday-to-Sunday portion. Disney's previous three-day recordholder was ``The Lion King,'' which opened to
$40.9 million in 1994.
According to Exhibitor Relations, which collects the studios' data, the top 12 films this weekend grossed a combined $209.9
million for the five days, up 27.8 percent from the record set a year ago. The three-day sum of $147.3 million was up 24.1
percent.
``The World Is Not Enough,'' the 19th entry in the 37-year-old Agent 007 movie franchise, slipped to No. 2 with $35 million
(three days: $24.3 million). After 10 days, the Pierce Brosnan picture has stirred up $76.3 million of business, said
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
``End of Days'' followed with $31 million for the five days (three days: $19.8 million), said Universal Pictures.
In his first headlining role since 1996's ``Eraser,'' Schwarzenegger plays an alcoholic ex-cop who races against the clock to
stop Satan (played by Gabriel Byrne) from impregnating a nubile woman (Robin Tunney) with his demon seed.
Critics trashed the movie. A Variety poll of key reviewers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington revealed not
a single positive notice for ``End of Days.'' On the other hand, ''Toy Story 2'' did not receive a single bad notice.
Disney's Viane said ``Toy Story 2'' pulled in audiences of all demographics, and everyone seemed to like it even more than
the original.
``The general audience is looking for a movie it can fall in love with, and this year it's 'Toy Story,''' he said.
Playing in 3,236 theaters across the United States and Canada, the film averaged a stunning $24,950 per site for the five
days. ``End of Days'' had the next highest average with $11,962 from each of its 2,592 sites.
According to Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco, the film skewed to ``a typical action male audience.'' About 55
percent of the viewers were over 25 years of age and 57 percent were male, she said.
Rounding out the top five were director Tim Burton's ''Sleepy Hollow'' (Paramount), which slipped two places to No. 4 in its
second weekend. The Johnny Depp thriller sold $27.4 million worth of tickets for the five days (three days: $18.8 million). Its
10-day total stands at $62.1 million.
Warner Bros.' ``Pokemon: The First Movie'' was also down two places, to No. 5, in its third weekend. Its five-day haul of
$9.1 million includes $7.1 million for the Friday-to-Sunday portion. The cartoon's 19-day haul is $77.7 million.
Also new this weekend was director Joel Schumacher's ''Flawless.'' Robert De Niro plays a macho security guard who
suffers a stroke and receives singing lessons from a drag queen (Philip Seymour Hoffman). It opened at No. 12 with a
five-day sum of just $2 million from 478 theaters, said MGM.
Debuting in limited release ahead of a national rollout was Taiwanese director Ang Lee's Civil War picture ``Ride with the
Devil,'' which marks the feature debut of pop singer Jewel. It grossed almost $94,000 from 11 screens for the five days,
below the expectations of its distributor, USA Films.
Doing better was ``Tumbleweeds,'' a critically acclaimed mother-daughter road trip movie from Fine Line Features, which
grossed almost $57,000 from five theaters in New York and Los Angeles.
Walt Disney Pictures is a unit of Walt Disney Co.. Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd.. Warner Bros. and Fine
Line Features are units of Time Warner Inc.. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc.. USA Films is a unit of USA
Networks Inc.
leave
the room or fall asleep. Sometimes those toys can be the subject of
nightmares like in Poltergeist and the clown, but most of the toys in TS2 are
benevolent creatures. The first movie was about how new toys take the
place of old ones and believing in yourself. This sequel is about what
happens when a kid out grows his favorite toys. Do they go to the shelf,
go underneath the bed, get thrown out piece by stitch, or do they go to the
dreaded YARD SALE? These are interesting concepts and things that people
who have grown up and are now living in the real world can relate to.
However, the problem I have with this movie and the original is that the
majority of the jokes and the point of the film are completely alien to the
under 10 set that the movie tries to be geared to. Toys like Mr. Potato
Head, slinky dogs, and Jaws grab the trash games were fun 20 years ago, but many
of the kids now are more electronic and happy meal oriented. Many of the
toys are foreign to today's children and the concept of giving up an old toy and
the 
significance
of it are things kids will not understand until the days of toy playing are
over. The kids react to the slapstick and sight gags. The dialogue
and the old Howdy Doodyish clips of Woody's 1950's TV show are strange or as one
character said in TS2, "this is weirding me out." During my time
in the theater, the most laughs came from the adults who could relate to how
they treated their own toys. They left them on a dusty shelf, stitches
leaked, and they have sold the toy they spent $30 on for $0.25 in a yard
sale. The biggest response from the crowd and actually my favorite moment
in the film was when the Barbie pool party was shown. Every little girl in
the audience oohed and laughed at that scene of the limbo dancing and the 2
dozen Barbies partying. It was as if they wanted to do the same thing with
their toys. It was a real moment of pleasure that kids could actually
relate to. Mattell would not allow Barbie in the first movie, but since
Toy Story 1 made about $190 million, they thought better of it next time.
Pixar immediately accepted their groveling, but I think they should have played
a little more hardball with those bandwagon jumpers. Because Toy Story 2
plays more to the adult level, it will keep its longevity. It is a movie
that you really don't outgrow, but learn to appreciate more as you get
older. Woody meets his accessories in his horse, gal pal cowgirl, and my
favorite the old Prospector. Woody gets caught by a toy collector who
wants to sell them to a Japanese buyer where the Cowboys can be on display in a
museum and not waste away in some child's room to be ignored. Buzz and the
rest of the gang try to rescue Woody, but does Woody want to be rescued?
These are interesting issues that I enjoyed because I am interested in the
concept of the toy collectible, the mint in a box, and the does it have the
cloth cape or the plastic one mentality. I am also of the belief that toys
are made to be played with and not left in a box to be sold at a 1000%
profit. I had several toys growing up, and I played with them all, and
glad for it. Mego toys were big when I was growing up that were about 6 to
8 inches with movable limbs and were made up of several superhero and Star Trek
figures. You have those things mint in a box, you could be rich.
However, you would be more poor for not having played with those figures.
Also, toys have a limited half life. It is expected that the toys will be
discarded, it is a part of growing up. If you are a toy, sort of speak, you
realize that this is your fate. It is your hope that a kid will choose you
to love so that your time in use will be worthwhile. The toys in Toy Story
have trouble dealing with that, but it is addressed at the end. All of the
major voices from the first one are here like Hanks, Tim Allen, and Don Rickles.
Kelsey Grammar and Joan Cusack are two new voices that do a good job, even
though I did find Cusack's yodeling and hi energy attitude to be a bit annoying,
but when she sung her origin song, I did feel sorry for her. Buzz
Lightyear is much better in this movie. He has a video game, a competing
doppleganger, and an arch enemy in the evil Zurg who has a shocking announcement
for our Space Ranger. Zurg rules. Jonathan Harris of Lost in Space
Dr. Smith fame plays a toy repairman who was also in that Pixar short that is
shown with Bug's Life with the guy playing chess. Wayne Knight of Neuman (Seinfeld)
and 3rd Rock from the Sun plays the evil Toy collector. The animation on
him is the most lifelike in the movie and some points looks like a real
person. I enjoyed Toy Story 2. I highly recommend it. If you liked
the first one, you will probably love this movie. Kids will like it
because of its superb computer animation and general humor. Adults will love it
because it speaks to them on as much their level as their children. Pixar
and Disney have found a winning formula that may lead to around $300 million in
box office. Toy Story 3 looks like a lock. Final review:
Thumbs up; 3 1/2 stars out of 4, 8.5 out of 10, and an A rating. 
plot
is a lot of hooey, but like most Arnold movies, plots are just an excuse to blow
things up and shoot a lot of people. No difference this time because many
things blow up and a lot of people are shot and killed in various horrific
ways. I am a big Arnold fan. I love most of his movies. He has only
made 2 movies that I have disliked, Raw Deal and Batman and Robin. My
favorite movie he has done is Commando for its unblinking acts of violence and
invincible Arnoldness, plus his great one liners like "I liiied."
I liked Eraser and Conan the Destroyer. Arnold is no actor, but he has a
good screen presence and his Austrian accent is fun to imitate. In this
movie, he plays a character very different from his normal roles where he is the
all knowing superman or all powerful cyborg. In this movie, he has serious
flaws and doubts about what he has to do. The first scene is Arnold with a
gun to his head contemplating suicide. He drinks constantly and is no
where near an AA meeting. Regular fans of AS may be disappointed in seeing
their hero show these weaknesses, but it actually helps in the plot when Satan
tries to use those flaws against him to bring him over to the dark side.
AS has to make a decision of getting his life back to normal or try to stop an
eternal force of evil. Those flaws people criticize actually are used to
bring suspense since the audience does not know for sure if AS should take the
Devil's offer. AS has to cry at one point, and of course it is not his
best moment of acting. Thank goodness. AS's character my have flaws, but
he 
is
no girly man. He can still fight and dangle from helicopters to catch the
bad guys. Gabriel Byrne plays the guy who is being controlled by the
Devil. Byrne's performance is great. He does imitate Pacino from
Devi's Advocate a bit in some scenes, especially the "God is an absentee
landlord" line in DA. In this one the Devil says that God is praised
because he has a good publicist and God is the reason bad things happen to good
people, not Satan. Ideas like these might turn off very religious
people. Also, some priests are shown trying to kill the girl Christine
because she will give birth to the end of days if Byrne has his way with
her. Many critics and some people I have talked to say that EOD
sucks. I dug it. I bought the whole thing, and the ending almost
made me cry it was so moving. There are several action sequences and the
dialogue scenes are filled with tension and not just there to fill time or
develop characters. AS is pretty much the same guy at the end as he was at
the beginning except for one major difference which is part of the plot twists
in the film. I will warn you though. There are several disturbing
images such as a baby sucking on rattlesnake blood, a scissor crucifixion, and a
mother and daughter having sex together with Gabriel Byrne's devil in a very
unique way. If you can accept the plot and the action then you will like
the movie. The acting of Byrne carries the film, and is his best work in
years. Much better than Cool World. Be warned. Many people say this
movie is awful. You might agree with those sentiments, but I am still
recommending it. Final Review: Thumbs up; 2 1/2 stars out of 4; 6 1/2 out
of 10, and B-. The ratings are a little low because of the negative buzz,
but high enough for me to still say go see it and judge for yourself.
great actor. Hoffman is playing his 3rd sexually confused character with
his roles in Boogie Nights and Happiness being other strange roles. I
think Hoffman is living out his own feelings in the roles he takes. He may
be a little sexually confused in real life or just a "great"
actor. Movies about drag queens have made money in the past like Bird
Cage, but the advertising for Flawless shows its large flaws. Deniro is a
bigoted stroke victim taking singing lessons from dragster Hoffman to help make
his stroke damaged speech better. While this is going on, some bad guys are
waving guns around to keep the action going. The marketing of the film is
that of the guns and a comedic buddy picture between Bobby D. and Hoffman.
The previews also make a point of its gayness which turns off many people.
My problem with the film is it not sticking with its main story. A movie
about a guy who has a stroke and can only get help from what he hates most is an
interesting plot. If it was just about that, then they might have a movie
there. The gun stuff is silly and looks like boardroom brainstorming to
bring in the mainstream crowd. It shows that the studio and Mr. Joel
Schumacher did not have confidence in their own script. They could have
had something that got some good Oscar buzz, but now it will be just another
forgotten film for not trusting the public to watch a drama and not an action
picture.